RAMALLAH, West Bank, 7 April 2005 — Four Palestinian officials, including two currently in custody, have been charged over accusations that they siphoned off $1.7 million of public funds, a senior official said yesterday.
The two under arrest are suspected of diverting the funds for their personal ends and their case files have already been forwarded to the state prosecutor, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service Tawfiq Al-Tirawi told AFP.
Two other officials suspected of involvement in the scandal have fled to neighboring Jordan but the Palestinian Authority has submitted a request to the government in Amman for their extradition, Tirawi added.
Tirawi said several other officials were likely to be interrogated shortly on the orders of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas who has pledged to curb the rampant corruption with the Palestinian Authority.
While Tirawi did not reveal the identities of the four who have been charged, other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that three were employees of the Finance Ministry while a fourth worked in the presidential office.
Reformist Finance Minister Salam Fayad told AFP last month he had managed to increase revenues by $30 million a month by cracking down on corruption which flourished during the era of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in November.
Meanwhile, four Palestinians were wounded yesterday by Israeli gunfire close to the controversial wall being built across the West Bank, according to Palestinian security sources.
The four were hit in the village of Deir Ballut in the northern West Bank on land confiscated by the Israeli authorities for construction of a tranche of the controversial barrier, the sources said.
Israeli military sources said three Palestinians had been wounded by Israeli security guards hired to protect the barrier, rather than by soldiers. The Israeli sources said the victims were among a group who had been throwing stones during a protest against the wall, large parts of which jut into the occupied territory.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said the guards “did not react according to procedure” and the shooting southwest of the West Bank city of Nablus was under investigation. It was a rare flare-up of violence since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a cease-fire summit in Egypt in February.
Palestinians condemn the wall — its route ruled illegal by the World Court because it cuts into occupied territory — as an attempt to annex some land Israel captured in a 1967 war and which Palestinians want for a state. Israel says the wall stops Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching its cities.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the security guards opened fire after Palestinians “crept up” on laborers working on the barrier and attacked them. A Defense Ministry spokeswoman gave no details on the nature of the attack. She said a member of the group was found to have a knife but it was not clear whether it had been brandished.
Palestinian officials said the wounded men were among a group holding a sit-in to protest against wall construction. The officials said some of the group started throwing stones after the guards tried to make them leave the area.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded, most of them lightly, and several killed in wall clashes with Israeli soldiers since construction began. But clashes with private security guards have been rare.
